Culture Shift?

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Since President of Baseball Operations David Stearns held his postmortem the day after the end of the Mets’ season, we haven’t heard as much as a whisper as to what the Mets’ plan was to avoid missing the playoffs and embarrassing themselves in 2026. That changed on Saturday morning, when Pat Ragazzo at Sports Illustrated (yeah, they’re technically still around) wrote the following paragraph:

According to a rival NL scout, the Mets recognize that their clubhouse is in need of a culture shift following last season's slow collapse. The expectation is that the Mets will float utility man Jeff McNeil on the trade market and let franchise cornerstone first baseman Pete Alonso walk in free agency unless he takes a team friendly deal.

I would like to go through those revelations one at a time, and since it is my newsletter I am going to do just that. 

(T)he Mets recognize that their clubhouse is in need of a culture shift following last season's slow collapse. 

It’s interesting how the clubhouse chemistry was tremendous in 2024 but supposedly lacking in 2025 with the same exact core plus a guy who will finish second or third in NL MVP voting. I thought we all agreed that 2025 happened mostly due to the pitching, with some RISP hitting failures through July thrown in. 

What I surmise is that the Mets don’t think there was a clubhouse chemistry issue so much as they would look foolish if they ran it all back. Which is true! It would be bad optics if the Mets, after arguably their biggest collapse in franchise history, brought back the same main bunch of guys, only a year older. 

The expectation is that the Mets will float utility man Jeff McNeil on the trade market

I feel like this sentence has been written during every offseason since 2021-22, after McNeil and Francisco Lindor had their little dust-up. Of course nowadays, Squirrel is going into his age-33 season and he’s on the final year of his contract, so he might be traded for real this time. If you’re going to make a change to the cast to avoid it looking like you’re just doomed to repeat history, McNeil is the guy to give away. Lindor and Juan Soto aren’t going anywhere. I can’t see any team taking on Brandon Nimmo and his contract. (We’ll get to Pete Alonso momentarily.) You’ll miss McNeil’s slightly above average OPS+ and positional versatility, but maybe not so much the temper tantrums. 

…and let franchise cornerstone first baseman Pete Alonso walk in free agency unless he takes a team friendly deal.

If you go by what David Stearns said over and over and over again in late September, that the Mets will focus more on “run prevention”, then there’s virtually no chance the Polar Bear will ply his trade in Queens ever again. I don’t have to tell you Alonso’s defensive woes playing first base. And every article about Alonso implies that Pete isn’t interested in being a full-time designated hitter, at least not yet. 

I assume “team friendly” means $30-35 million a year for no more than four years. If he accepts that kind of deal, I could see Stearns and Steve Cohen shrugging their shoulders and figuring they’ll accept the errors on the field if he keeps driving in 110+ runs. If another team offers him more than four, that would mean Alonso would be playing for that team until he was at least 35 years old where he would most likely need to mostly be the designated hitter, then that would be a problem for the Mets - Juan Soto is ticketed for the DH slot around that time. (Plus, you don’t know how accommodating Alonso would be to the change.)

As far as letting Alonso walk for the sake of changing up the clubhouse culture, the irony is that the biggest move the Mets could realistically make to change the clubhouse dynamics is the same move that would significantly hurt them on the field - allowing Pete Alonso to play for someone else. That, as they say, is the rub.

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In an article about athletes living in the world of legalized gambling, Ryne Stanek revealed that he gets death threats every day. Every day! There’s no excuse for that. 

Edgardo Alfonzo was inducted into the Mets Latin American Hall of Fame. Perhaps this will ease the pain of missing out on The Mets Newsletter Hall of Fame.

A lot of Mets minor leaguers are now free agents. The list includes the likes of Joey Meneses and José Azocar. 

MLB Trade Rumors asked its readers if they think the Mets will consider trading Kodai Senga this offseason. 60 percent figure that the team will listen to trade offers but only move him if they get a really good return. Only 17.5 percent think the Mets won’t listen to anybody. It’s worth noting that Stearns said trusting Senga to make 30 starts next year would be “foolish.” Personally, I agree with the 60 percent, yet he ends up staying in Queens.

Donald Trump pardoned Darryl Strawberry, who was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice way back when. The Straw Man pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 1995. No he didn’t. Not anymore. 

It’s been revealed that Steve Cohen was the buyer in 2017 of a functioning golden toilet sculpture titled America. He’s selling it for at least $10 million. Bidding starts next Tuesday. 

Juan Soto made a surprise visit to the Mets Academy in the Dominican Republic. I guess he’s back from “Cancun.” 

Defector had a great article about the origins of a campaign button endorsing an obscure Mets prospect named Wilbur Hickle for POTUS during the 1960s.

In the Arizona Fall league’s All-Star Game, CF Nick Morabito went 0 for 3 with an RBI, two strikeouts, and a stolen base. DH Chris Suero was 0 for 2 with two whiffs.

On this day in 2014, Jacob deGrom won the NL Rookie of the Year award. 

The 2025 GM Meetings begin today and last through Thursday in Las Vegas. Expect some Stearns soundbites but don’t expect actual transactions.